Just out of curiosity, Mike, but did you get inspired to use the name Hypnos by the title of the wonderful H.P. Lovecraft story, or the Greek god of slumber and father of the gods of dreams?

Glad to hear of the Path of White Clouds re-release. Genesis is an epic release...

My inspiration was the Greek god of sleep.

Though the Hypnos label is not meant to be entirely about night-time music or music for relaxation or sleep, that kind of use of sound, for sleep or meditation or that sort of thing, was most important to me at the time I started the label. I was interested in Buddhist meditation and was trying to practice that every day, back then, and I was very interested in sleep and lucid dreaming, altered states of consciousness, and I felt deep ambient music could be an important component of such efforts.

For a while, in the late 90s, I think the Hypnos web site was coming up high on the list of any internet search for "hypnosis" or "hypnotism" and I was frequently getting emails from kids writing reports about these subjects, asking me for help with their school reports on hypnosis. Haven't had a request like that in a while now.

Didn't you used to have an FAQ item for people requesting info for school papers? I seem to remember that (or it was just a forum topic years ago... wow - the forum's been around quite a while now (2001 I think)... )

Didn't you used to have an FAQ item for people requesting info for school papers? I seem to remember that (or it was just a forum topic years ago... wow - the forum's been around quite a while now (2001 I think)... )

I just realized that the weird hypnosis requests stopped some time around the time I updated the site with that FAQ, which at least explains that this is a web site for a record label, and not an information site about hypnosis.

g.@.b.

I'm definitely jazzed for Message From a Subatomic World, Mike, as I'm still digging Sounds of a Universe Overheard. Will that be ready for ordering Feb/March? The Austere/Solyaris looks cool, too...@ least form the cover art.

I'm definitely jazzed for Message From a Subatomic World, Mike, as I'm still digging Sounds of a Universe Overheard. Will that be ready for ordering Feb/March? The Austere/Solyaris looks cool, too...@ least form the cover art.

I'd say it (MFSW) should be ready around that timeframe -- possibly the very end of February, more likely early March. It's mostly ready to go, just needs some fine-tuning to get the tracks to "play nice" with each other. And then a few weeks for manufacturing, of course.

Austere

We're aware of the problem of potential confusion or conflict, when artists select names that are not unique. This is something we're dealing with on more than one front, right now.

We can't exactly tell Nebula they can't be called "Nebula" since they already released two albums under that name, and it would be weird and confusing to release the Path of White Clouds album under some other name, like "Gigi and Mathias's Euro-Ambient All-Star Band." We don't have a definite solution on this one right now, but in the case of one other such conflict, we're releasing the album by the artist "Sense" under the name "Sense (Robert Logan)" to avoid confusion with several other artists known as "Sense."

We understand, and as said, were not trying to be a kill-joy, we just know that Sub Pop's legal dept. - which takes up a whole floor now, one of us has been well-connected w/Sub Pop since 1988 and knows many people who work there - well, we just wanted to make sure you knew because we know two bands who've been sued by them, and who knows how many others? The two bands we know went through hell and just bailed and did a name change when lawyers wanted USD $5-10K just to take on the case.

So we hope you understand we were/are just trying to be helpful, is all, yeah? We agree that name collision is a big problem but usually can be ignored, but in this case, since it's Sub Pop... let's just say that we know from inside sources that their legal department has brought in most of their revenue over the last 10+ years and the label runs even or at a loss. We would just hate for you and/or the band to have to deal with a lawsuit is all! We'll say no more, just wanted to warn, OK? And again, no offense intended, just trying to help as we can. Sorry if we're just telling you what you already know, but we thought "no harm, no foul." Cheers!

Don't worry, we weren't bothered by your suggestion to the Nebula naming issue. We're working on a solution right now (that is, I'm discussing it with Oophoi who is sort of in charge of the project) and we have several good ideas that involve very slight changes or additions to the name so it will still be recognizable to those who knew the two Nebula albums in their previous releases..

Here just a quick little update on all the items mentioned in the "2008 outlook" up above, as we get ready to head into February. I'll follow that with a few items that weren't mentioned when I first posted this topic.

Austere | Solyaris Originally planned for Jan 2008, we've delayed this one until early February to give the Austere guys time to release their box-set, which I'm sure they'll be plugging here on the Forum soon.

M. Griffin | Fabrications All recording and editing is done, and just a few fine-tuning tweaks will be done (EQ and volume, mainly) before this one is sent out to be pressed.

Various Artists | Message From a Subatomic WorldThis second compilation is complete in terms of artist selection, track selection, and track sequence. Some basic mastering is needed to get the tracks to match up, and this will be ready.

Evan Bartholomew | Tidal Phases of the Moon IA recent addition to the release list, this long-form ambient piece should be ready to go soon, but we're fine-tuning some very small issues with the master. We'll be getting CDs manufactured for this one (rather than the usual Hypnos Secret Sounds limited CDR release) so that will take a few extra weeks.

Sense (Robert Logan) | The Sublime (2cdr)This release has been in the works for quite a while (though it wasn't announced until the title was decided, though that's been changed twice subsequently). This too is different in that it's a 2 disc release. Very challenging and exciting sounds... we can't wait to introduce Hypnos listeners to Sense!

Robert Rich | Somnium (dvd)Our initial pressing of 2,000 copies sold out, and we're still selling enough of them that we're pressing another 1,000. That makes this the best-selling Hypnos release ever (as other discs have had 2,000 made, but none sold out the second thousand before).

Jeff Pearce | Daylight SlowlyJeff's first Hypnos disc has been out of print for a while, and we're going to re-press it with different artwork.

Nebula | The Path of White CloudsThis is a re-issue of an out of print album by this Oophoi & Mathias Grassow (and many others) ambient collective. We're going to slightly change the name from "Nebula" to something just barely different, to avoid conflicting with other artists already using that name. This is a beautiful recording, one that definitely deserves to be available.

Various Artists | Echoes of PolyhymniaHypnos manager Lena is curating this females-only ambient compilation. We're already received some great submissions, and some very promising artists have tracks on the way to us even now. Already confirmed to take part: Gydja, Rose Bolton, Margaret Noble, Stellaria Fennica, Clarissa Borba, Kristin Miltner, Sara Ayres, Floating World, Lena & K. Cornelius.

Various Artists | NevertimeThis Binary label compilation will emphasize a more modern and edgy style of electronic music, ranging from minimal, pulsing techno to what some call electronica and some call IDM, to glitch and minimalism.

Viridian Sun | As-Yet-Untitled albumThis will be an album of brand new (late 2007, early 2008) sessions, with a hypnotic, deep, organic feel. More guitar-based, and less electronic, than previous Viridian Sun releases.

M. Griffin & Various Artists | Vapors and Magnetism (video DVD)Much work still remains to be done on this, which will be a collection of abstract videos, each with an exclusive music track by one of our favorite ambient recording artists.

MORE VIRIDIAN SUNAfter the release of the Viridian Sun album just recorded, we will likely finish and release the unreleased album from 5-6 years earlier. First things first! Or actually, last things first.

M. GRIFFIN AND _____I've undertaken two collaborations for this coming year, figuring that these things usually proceed with delays and lulls, which will allow me to work on them one at a time, simultaneously! And it already seems that one of them won't start for a few months, so this should be a matter of working quietly, and not announcing anything until some progress is made mid-year.

BINARY AKA HYPNOS/BINARYFor those of you who don't know, Binary is the sublabel for more dynamic electronic sounds. We're going to put some effort into revving things up on Binary this year, starting with Nevertime (see above), but leading on to some CDs by some new artists.

BINARY EXPLORER SERIESThis will be a limited CDR imprint related to our Binary sub-label. In other words, Binary Explorer Series is to Binary, as Hypnos Secret Sounds is to Hypnos. We intend to start running BES full-speed starting this spring, right around the time we're recruiting for the Nevertime comp.

NEW ONLINE STOREWe've reserved the domain for our new dedicated music store (not just an offshoot of the Hypnos site, the way our current Hypnos Online Store works), so before too long there will be an ever-expanding music store at www.soundswim.com -- it will start off selling much of the same stuff as the Hypnos store, but will quickly broaden out. We'll be selling downloads, too, just Hypnos (and sub-label) tracks at first, but possibly other tracks on other labels at some point, depending on how it goes.

Other new stuff added to the "2008 outlook" since the initial posts...

Jonathan Block | The Anatomy of WavesThis is a set of recordings that we'd been playing around Hypnos HQ for a while, when suddenly it dawned on us, "Jonathan would like us to release these, and we're enjoying listening to them, so why not just do it?" This went from "planned release" to "CDs ready to sell" in record time, and you can buy this one today.

Matt Borghi coming soonDetails remain to be worked out, but it appears that Hypnos Secret Sounds will be doing a series of reissues of Matt Borghi's out of print back catalog, including some of his more ambient, atmospheric works. These are some wonderful sounds, and the original releases were all so limited as to have disappeared prematurely. We're looking forward to helping Hypnos listeners and Matt Borghi fans get their hands onto some of these. They'll be released one at a time, 2-3 months apart.

Another new (old) Hypnos artist?We've been in discussions this past couple weeks about Hypnos becoming the exclusive outlet for a recording artist who has released music on Hypnos before, but not recently. Can't give any details about this quite yet, maybe in a few week, however it represents a major coup for Hypnos in terms of bringing a respected and prolific sound artist back into the fold.

Austere

"At first we called ourselves The Originals, but there was another group of lads called The Originals, so we changed our name to The New Originals..."

Funny, one of us was in a punk band called "The Originals" and we went with "The Original Originals" when we heard the name was taken.... That one is prolly worth looking up on Discogs.com, we know at least two bands with that name who are "famous", or at least well-known in the alt/underground scene....

One of us has a cassette around here somewhere of our sole release... we'll have to find that to include tracks on the next "compilation box set" in 2018.